The Duke’s words were not wrong. Yet the reason he was annoying was because I didn’t like that he was trying to do things as he pleased.

‘If the Count had come to see me first, he should have told me.’

Come to think of it, it had always been like that.

He changed my guard Yan as he pleased, and even my name was given by the Duke as he wished.

The very first time I came to the Duke’s house was because the Duke sent knights to bring me, wasn’t it?

When I think about it like this one by one, there’s not a single thing I like about it.

At that moment, the Duke spoke to the Count again.

“I would have told you to speak to me if you had something to say.”

“I had something I wanted to say directly to the young lady.”

“Last time you had the precedent of touching my daughter’s head. This time, I took precautions in advance.”

“I acknowledge my mistake that day. Didn’t I apologize in advance? I assure you it won’t happen again.”

“It’s hard to believe.”

The corners of the Count’s mouth turned up.

It seemed like he was trying hard to smile, unable to outwardly express his irritation at the Duke’s seemingly unreasonable behavior.

“Then please allow me to show at least a small token of my sincerity to the young lady.”

‘Sincerity?’

Count Ripe rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a small black box.

“Let me see it first.”

The Duke reached out his hand to the Count first. However, the Count pretended not to hear and gently held out the box in front of me.

Then, before the Duke could snatch it away, he quickly opened the box and showed me the inside.

Inside the black box was a purple raw gemstone.

At first glance, it looked like a common amethyst. It was in the form of an unprocessed raw stone.

However, if you looked closely, there was clearly a faint red light swirling inside.

‘It’s an unused mana stone.’

That red light was mana. It was the appearance of mana stored inside the jewel.

“No, that is!”

“Isn’t it a mana stone?”

Others also seemed to recognize its value and couldn’t hide their surprise.

‘It’s certainly a precious item.’

To use magic, one needs mana, which is the source of that power.

Only those born with innate mana could do that.

However, there was one way for those without mana to use magic, and that was by using mana stones.

The number of people born with innate mana was quite large. In terms of population, it would be about one-fifth of the entire empire’s citizens.

However, the problem was that most of them had small amounts of mana.

Even among those born with innate mana, only a very small number were born with more than a certain amount of mana, while most people were born with less mana than a mana stone.

‘That’s why there was such a fuss when the Duke’s twins were first revealed to the world.’

For the first time in human history, they were children born with nearly infinite mana inside them.

That’s why the Tower Master tried so hard to make the twins part of their group.

‘For some reason they didn’t like, they ended up not becoming part of the Tower.’

After that, the twins were busy ruthlessly using the Tower to their liking even though they weren’t going to be part of it.

As a result, several magicians who were harmed intentionally attacked the twins, but later they disappeared without a trace.

‘If it’s a mana stone, it will be useful someday, as the Count said.’

For me, who couldn’t handle mana, it was the first time seeing mana directly. The shape of the mana trapped inside the mineral rippled like red waves.

“Duke, this is my small token of sincerity for the young lady. Surely you don’t intend to take away this sincerity?”

“…I’ll check it separately before giving it.”

Even though it was clearly a mana stone, the Duke replied while exuding an air of displeasure.

The Duke casually handed over the mana stone to a servant.

‘Why go that far.’

Count Ripe was not the type of person who would openly hate others, but rather pretend to be nice on the surface while secretly plotting to harm others.

Moreover, since I was still a powerless child, it meant there was no need to worry about the Count threatening me.

“Thank you, Count.”

“No need for thanks.”

When I politely thanked him, Count Ripe responded with a beaming smile.

“Diane.”

“Hm?”

“I have a mana stone mine.”

“…Mmhmm.”

Suddenly the Duke brags about his mine.

It seems the inspection of the mana stone didn’t take much time. The servant who had left the conference room returned in less than an hour.

‘I didn’t know the Count had something like this.’

I held the box containing the mana stone tightly with both hands, feeling pleased.

I had forgotten that I was sitting on the Duke’s lap.

At that moment, one of the merchants leaned forward with a smiling face.

“The young lady looks very comfortable.”

“It seems the young lady follows the Duke a lot. I heard that last time, she shared cookies that were brought out as a snack for the Duke when he came out to work?”

Sharing snacks with the Duke was when I had just entered the Duke’s household.

‘That was when I tried to escape and got caught.’

Looking back now, that escape attempt was all meaningless, but I still regretted the cookies that were taken away by the Duke then.

‘By the way, how did they know about that?’

There’s no way that incident would have become a rumor, so someone must have told them.

‘Could it be that the Duke told them?’

Curious, I slightly turned my head to look up at the Duke, but the Duke had an indifferent expression.

‘There’s no way the Duke would have done that.’

Then did they hear about it from somewhere else? While I was pondering, Theophila mentioned that incident again.

“How much must she have not wanted to part with the Duke to do that? Indeed, at that age, father is the best.”

‘No, that’s not it!’

“Of course, there was a time when the young lady couldn’t meet her father. Considering that time, it’s natural for them to be affectionate towards each other.”

‘We’re not affectionate at all!’

“Even now, isn’t she here because she wanted to see the Duke? Haha, the meeting is about to start, this is troublesome!”

Despite saying it was troublesome, the merchant’s expression didn’t look troubled at all. And I felt very wronged.

‘I didn’t come to see the Duke!’

The merchants’ faces were full of delight. It was very burdensome to see their eyes dripping with honey as they looked at me.

‘How did everyone come to such a serious misunderstanding…’

I slowly leaned back. That’s when the Duke blurted out.

“The child is very clingy.”

“Yes, even now she’s snuggled up in the Duke’s arms, it seems she’s very shy. But to come all the way here to see her father despite that, you must be really pleased, Duke.”

My words about coming to see Philen were swallowed up. There seemed to be no way out of this serious swamp of misunderstanding.

I muttered in resignation.

“Mmhmm, that’s right. I came because I wanted to see the Duke.”

“I know.”

Today too, the Duke’s delusion was free.

“As you can see in the report, sales have increased more than last month. I think it’s because we distributed samples to everyone as you advised last time, Duke, which seems to have had a promotional effect.”

“Our company also participated in the same way, but it was a bit different for us. Sales didn’t decrease, but compared to the samples we distributed, there wasn’t much promotional effect, you could say? If you look at the table where we summarized that part, you’ll see…”

As soon as the meeting started, people’s attitudes changed instantly.

Naturally, the atmosphere in the room became heavier than before.

From what I could gather, it was a regular meeting that they held periodically.

Perhaps because of this, the Duke didn’t speak much during the meeting.

It was like the merchants took turns presenting one by one, and the Duke just nodded occasionally.

‘I don’t know why I’m still here, but.’

Feeling very bored in the midst of this, I squirmed in the Duke’s arms.

But the Duke, perhaps thinking I might fall, held me even tighter.

‘Sigh, I don’t know anymore.’

After all, I came to see Philen. Philen was the Duke’s assistant and practically the Duke’s shadow.

If I stuck close to the Duke, I would be able to meet Philen too.

How long had the meeting gone on like that? Unable to bear the boredom, my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

My eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, and my head kept trying to nod forward.

Every time that happened, the Duke would push my forehead with his hand, naturally making me tense my neck, but.

‘So sleepy…’

Just as I was barely pushing away the drowsiness, I suddenly heard a familiar voice.

“Indeed, looking at the way things are going, it was similar to the illegal monster auction last time. There were suspicious circumstances, and then we received a tip, so I sent an informant.”

“You say there was a tip?”

“Yes, but it’s difficult to identify the informant, so…”

When I painfully lifted my heavy eyelids, Philen was standing next to the Duke, though I didn’t know when he had come in.

“Oh, young lady. You’re awake!”

At his words, my eyes became wide awake and sleep flew away.

Looking around, all the merchants had already left.

In the empty, spacious conference room, there were only the Duke, Philen, and me.

‘I didn’t even notice everyone leaving…’

Even though the others’ voices weren’t particularly quiet, I didn’t even realize the meeting had ended.

It meant I had fallen into a deep sleep. I rubbed my mouth for no reason.

‘At least I didn’t drool while sleeping, that’s good.’

I felt a bit embarrassed, but my whole body felt refreshed after sleeping soundly.

At that moment, the Duke stood up abruptly while holding me. It seemed he was finally thinking of leaving the conference room for his office.

‘I need to deliver the letter to Philen.’

I fumbled to take out the letter I had brought. Even as I was pressing out the crumpled paper, their conversation continued.

“Tell me again. You said you’re looking into the informant’s identity, but there’s nothing you can guess at all?”

“Yes, but judging from the handwriting, it seemed to be someone from the capital. However, there are various variables in guessing based on handwriting alone.”

“What about the auction house?”

“There were strange rumors circulating around that area. According to a merchant who heard the news, they said they would showcase an elixir of immortality at the auction.”

“An elixir, you say?”

“Yes, the white snake. They said they would put that up for auction. Well, the methods in that industry are similar every time. They’ll create one auction to attract people’s attention properly, and behind that, they’ll set up the real auction they’ve prepared.”

I, who had been busy smoothing out the crumpled paper, froze on the spot.

It was because I had heard a strange and familiar word in their conversation.

“D-did you just say white snake?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s called a white snake because it has a completely snow-white skin. Isn’t it fascinating, young lady, a white snake?”

I tightly held the letter for Philen in both hands.

Thoughts about the letter had already flown far away.

“Actually, the elixir of immortality doesn’t exist. You can think of all the people who entice others with such words as frauds. Young lady, you must never believe such vain words.”

I couldn’t continue speaking.

That was because the moment he said white snake, something came to mind.

‘Silver snake…’

Could it possibly be you?